Magus on Campus
by Uraharaisgod
Summary: Following the end of the Holy Grail War, Shirou is surprised to discover a letter sent to him by a mysterious *Headmaster*, one who seems to know far too much about his situation. Following the sound advice given, he goes to Youkai Gakuen, but quickly discovers he may have left one battlefield for another! Shirou/Mizore, Tsukune/Harem
1. Chapter 1 New beginnings

Heyo FF readers!

Welcome to a new story from me, while this was initially intended to be a single chapter and just left since it was on my comp for so long, I was eventually stoked into continuing it. However, I had accidentally leaked plot points all over the place, thus imma deleting my Author Notes for the most part, sorry if this causes confusion.

Anyhow, enjoy the story!

* * *

_Emiya Shirou._

_The adopted son of the deceased Emiya Kiritsugu, currently living alone on his father's estate in his hometown of Fuyuki City._

_Second year student at Homurahara academy, grade average of 2's across the board, known for being a particularly adept student._

_Hobbies and interests include mechanics, archery, swordplay and strangely enough….housework._

_Overall, a rather normal individual._

_Oh, and he's a Magus._

* * *

And it was because of this one small nuance of his life that one Emiya Shirou finds himself reclining in a ratty bus seat, on a bright yellow minibus, on his way to his new rather suspiciously named school. Shirou couldn't help but sigh in irritancy as he ran a hand through his almost obnoxiously rust coloured hair, watching the countryside go by as he muttered to himself;

"How on earth did things end up like this?"

Even as he wondered this, that ever so creepy looking bus driver chuckled ominously to nobody in particular, sending another chilling shiver up Shirou's spine. That was another thing that wrung warning bells in his head, there was no way in hell that *bus* driver was even slightly normal. Shirou couldn't sense any ill will towards him from the man with the almost glowing eyes, but he was getting annoyed at how the man, if he could even be called that, seemed to be laughing at some inside joke at his expense.

The magus could only sigh in annoyance at the noise, still wondering just how things could have turned out this strange. Sure, he had no real right to complain. Starting at a new school in the middle of nowhere, in a place he had never heard of was kind of a relief compared to what had been happening only weeks ago. Even now he still winced at the phantom pains that he felt just bringing up those memories brought.

Bringing down his hand from his head, he glared almost sullenly at the mark on the back of his hand, the source of both phantom and real pain, the now invisible mark that was both a gift and a curse, one that was almost ironically placed as a mirror to the command seal that had once graced his opposite hand. Even as he glared at the place where he knew the marks were, he could feel the skin on the back of his hand burning with a fierce intensity**-_AGONY!-_**that took all of his self-control not to scratch**-_TEAR OFF!_-**to relieve.

Muttering under his breath as he fought the internal battle to calm those annoying thoughts of self-mutilation that came with his soul trying to reject what shouldn't have been on his body in the first place, he quickly returned his hand to his lap, hoping that removing it from his direct line of sight would calm the ill-advised compulsions that he felt towards the invisible sigil that was burned into his flesh.

'I guess Tohsaka wasn't joking when she said she was often struck with the desire to tear her own arm off…'

Once again that ominous chuckling started up at the front of the bus, as if the rather freaky individual had heard his thoughts and found them immensely amusing, inciting another bout of shivers from the Magus.

'DAMN IT!'

He couldn't help but curse at the enigmatic bus driver. He had gone through hell itself within the last few weeks, taken part in battles between titans who could destroy fortresses with their greatest attacks, even fighting toe-to-toe with the King of Heroes himself! He would have thought after being in the presence of legends such as the bloodthirsty yet proud Cu Chulainn, the insidious and twisted Medea, even the great monster that was Herakles himself would have tempered his soul that nothing in this day and age would be able to shake him, yet this creepy bus driver was getting under his skin with nothing but a chuckle!

"Hehehehehe…."

And again!

"Well boy, we are stopping off here to pick up another…student…hehehehe"

Shirou couldn't shake the feeling that this smoking bus driver was seriously doing that chuckle just because he knew it was driving him half crazy! For easily the hundredth time since he stepped on this bus, he wished he had just ignored those warnings he had followed, those letters that had caused him to eventually reject the offer Rin had given him to follow her to London. Of course it wasn't JUST those words that had caused him to make this choice, but that promise he had made to the one he couldn't save, a final request he couldn't refuse from the chivalrous knight now lost to the passage of time….. (1)

JOLT!

Once again Shirou barely managed to bite back a curse as the bus bucked again, knocking him out of his reverie as the now slowing yellow rust bucket (as he had taken to naming it) groaned as the driver pulled up. Glancing outside, he expected to see at least a good few people lined up outside, after all the bus driver had said there was only one more stop after Fuyuki City and as it currently stood, Emiya Shirou was the sole student that was going to be attending this *Yokai* academy.

'Monster Academy, of all the things they could have named a school….'

As Shirou once again slipped into grousing about his situation, another boy finally got on the bus. As the new boy started to ascend the aisle, glancing nervously at Shirou as the mousy haired boy tried to decide whether to pick a seat near the only other prospective student or keep his distance for now, Shirou discretely took a slight sniff of air.

While this action would seem strange to those who didn't know him, one of Shirou's traits was his *6th sense*. Rin had once tried to summarise it to him as an incredible sensitivity to disturbances in the natural order of the world, a highly and surprisingly advanced instinctive version to the comparative ability to detecting changes of Mana in the air that most Magus had to _train_ to develop. Also for whatever reason, his mind had decided the easiest way to associate this *6th sense* was to interoperate it as an olfactory perception.

All he really understood about that explanation was that he could literally *smell* changes in the areas about him, or detect if a person had abnormal traits to an average human, such as the presence of a Magus. In that case, his ability was extraordinary as Rin had guessed that he could *sense* the *Origin* of an active Magus, an ability that would make any other Magus green with envy. Of course, that was providing said Magus didn't decide that perhaps dissecting him would be a good idea to discover how he developed such advanced instinctive capabilities.

Turning away from morbid thoughts, Shirou couldn't detect anything from the boy which very much surprised him. One of the letters from the so called *Headmaster* had hinted that the pupils who attended this *Youkai Academy* weren't entirely normal. While he couldn't tell what the hell that annoying bus dri-

"Hehehehe!"

-ver was, he could tell he wasn't _human, _the distortion in his senses from the bus driver could never be considered human, he couldn't even associate the scent his 6th sense identified the mysterious man with against anything he knew. The only thing he knew was that it was strong, not anywhere near the level of strength that even the weakest of the Servants from the Holy Grail War had, but he could tell whatever being the bus driver was, he didn't want to casually make an enemy out of it.

However, the boy who had finally mustered enough courage up to take the seat on the adjacent side of the bus from him, and who was now fidgeting nervously as he tried to figure out a way to perhaps open conversation with the Magus was definitely 100% an average everyday human, no scent of eldritch or demonic powers, nothing otherworldly, nothing based on Mana or Odo, just your average human. If anything the scent just felt….._mediocre_, as if it was trying to make itself less noticeable, although how on earth it managed to do that almost flummoxed the Magus.

"umm…err…."

Shirou almost laughed as he heard the flustered attempt to talk to him from the boy on the other side of the bus, his face starting to blush slightly as he already realised he was sounding like an idiot in his attempts to talk to the sharp eyed Magus.

"Emiya, Emiya Shirou." He decided to throw a bone to the boy; it was obvious he was suffering enough just trying to think of a way to talk, so giving a name would perhaps help him gain momentum.

"Oh…h-hello Emiya-san!" the boy finally managed to get out, smiling nervously as he tried to get the greeting across. An answering smile from Shirou as he shifted in his seat to better face the boy gave him enough courage to finally say "My name is Aono Tsukune!...umm…are you going to Youkai Academy too?"

"Yep, I guess were both heading to the same madhouse, eh Aono-san?" Shirou replied with a widening grin, getting an answering chuckle from the other teenager, finally getting the boy to relax a bit from the tenseness he did have, before quickly adding "There's no need to call me that though, Shirou is just fine with me."

"Oh, okay Shirou-san, if that's the case then I'm fine with just Tsukune too!" Tsukune replied with some more excitement in his voice, finally glad he had somebody to talk too. He had been nervous all day with having to go to this new school as the last ditch option when he flunked the High School Entrance Exam. It hadn't helped when the bus which pulled up was nigh on empty and the bus driver looked really intimidating, I mean why on earth did it look like his eyes glowed?

"Hehehehe!" an almost answering chuckle came from the front of the bus as they finally started on the way to their new school, causing an involuntary wince in both Shirou and Tsukune. Turning his attention back to the other prospective student on the bus with him, he took half a second to finally get a proper look at the other boy, having been too nervous a few minutes ago to really do so.

In his eyes, Shirou was kind of intimidating. Even though the smile on his face was obviously friendly and his eyes showed interest in his fellow student, as a whole Shirou just looked intimidating. Just from looking at his bare arms, you could see incredible muscle definition and tone; it was obvious that he worked out a lot. There was also his hair, and it was this that made him nervous of Shirou when he first laid eyes on him.

The rust red tones were shot through with specks of pure white. To begin with the red looked far too vibrant to be natural, so on first glance he looked like a delinquent who dyed his hair, but on closer looks it got even stranger. Almost at random, it seemed the red hair was interspersed with white. It didn't look like a gradual process, there were red hairs, and pure white hairs, nothing in between at all, no faded reds, no greys, just pure strong rust red, and blindingly bright pure white. Tsukune could only guess that maybe Shirou was an albino, after all those flint grey eyes couldn't be natural either….. (2)

A loud deliberate cough from said boy and Tsukune instantly tried to duck his head away, realising he had been caught staring at what could possibly be a terse subject to his fellow student.

'Go figure it would be the hair again…' Shirou almost groaned internally as he saw the boy flinch and try to disguise his rather impolite staring. It was one of the many things that he had to adjust to after the end of the Holy Grail War, alongside the admittedly more disturbing impulses to tear the flesh off the back of his hand. When Rin had first seen his new look, even she was at a loss for words. She couldn't hide the pain and concern she felt from him at seeing his new state, even if she still acted the same prideful way as she always did. There had been an unsaid, unspoken agreement between them at that moment to never bring up these changes again. Shirou didn't need to be reminded how much his looks were changing to reflect _him._

It didn't save him from the wrath of one Tiger of Fuyuki City though, Fujimaru-sensei had spent easily 5 hours *reprimanding* him in the dojo with her evil Shinai. It was on that day that Shirou came to realise that the Tora Shinai was actually a conceptual weapon, born of the painful moans of the hundreds, nay thousands who had suffered the wrath of the almighty Taiga. From that day forth, not only did he come to understand the true hatred Fujimaru-sensei seemed to have with *delinquents*, but UBW gained a new addition to its armoury.

Back to the present, and it seemed after his initial slip-up, Tsukune had taken it upon himself to make up for having noticed his new fellow students *problem* by embarrassing himself with telling his own *problems* to the Magus.

"L-like I said, my name is Aono Tsukune, 15 yrs old and admittedly I'm about as average as you can get, 3's in all areas. I've got no real hobbies as I….kinda suck at anything physical and I don't really have the mental skills to do much….totally mediocre huh?" Tsukune listed off, hoping that by maybe talking about himself, he could introduce himself better, but all he really succeeded in doing was depressing himself.

Shirou couldn't help but pity the lad, he had a depressingly low amount of confidence and it really shone through with how he spoke about himself. He tried to give the boy what he hoped was a reassuring grin as he replied "Maybe you just haven't figured out what your good at yet?"

"Hm…." Was the only reply he got for a few seconds as Tsukune just rested his head on his hands, staring out at the passing countryside for a bit. As he did so, Shirou realised that something was a bit strange about the situation, they had managed cleared the town a bit fast to already be out in the countryside. He just chalked it up to not noticing and losing track of the time, once again ignoring the strange, all knowing chuckle of the bus driver.

Tsukune fortunately managed to bounce back out of his funk pretty fast, once again turning eagerly to Shirou as he asked "Um, if you don't mind me asking then, do you have any hobbies or interests Shirou-san?"

The Magus had to bite down quickly what his first, most instinctive reaction to that question was, didn't need a fellow student to ask too many questions if he said *saving people* and he didn't feel like uncovering that old paradoxical argument anytime soon, least of all with a person who probably wasn't aware of the true hardships of the world outside of normal happy society.

'Small talk, focus on small talk'

"Well, I guess you could say I have a few, but my main passion is in….fixing stuff I guess?" Shirou finally replied with a slightly unsure grin on his face as he tried to summarise the best way to describe himself.

"Fixing stuff, like mechanics?" Tsukune questioned eagerly

"Yeah, everybody used to rely on me to fix all the really old stuff in our school since the heaters and cooling equipment kept breaking a lot" Shirou replied, his grin turning into a fond smile as he remembered all the times he was constantly requisitioned by either the teachers or Ryuusei and the student council to fix broken equipment. It was a job that he took to eagerly, not only was it a brilliant way to train his abilities, but helping others always felt rewarding, seeing their smiles of gratitude was payment enough.

"Wow, you must have been really good at it then!" Tsukune said with an almost awe filled voice, smiling happily back at the older boy. Shirou could only scratch at the back of his head in embarrassment at hearing such obvious praise from the boy, it wasn't like Tsukune could possibly know that the main reason he was so skilled was because of magic.

The bus ride continued like that for a few hours, as the two students exchanged stories and tales with one another. Shirou spoke of the calmer days in his life, of normal school days and normal if not excitable times at his home with the ever excitable Taiga and the kind Sakura. Tsukune spent most of the time just listening in awe of the more experienced boy, surprised by the knowledge that Shirou had lived alone for so long and was adopted to begin with. He couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult it must have been to not know his parents, and thus was even more impressed with Shirou.

In turn, Shirou eventually managed to coax some things out of Tsukune. It was rough going, not that Tsukune was secretive, just unconfident. When he did start to talk about himself, there was a certain light in the boy's expression, a fondness as he spoke of his family, of his cousin Kyouko who he'd grown up with, of the park that they often played at when they were children, of the friends he made in his old school.

From just watching him speak and listening to him, Shirou deduced one very obvious trait of Tsukune. The boy was a very gentle soul, he treasured the important relations he made with people and spoke of them with fondness. True, he didn't seem to have any outstanding, exceptional or even notable parts to his experiences or traits aside this gentleness which he seemed to have in spades. Once again, Shirou was struck by his initial estimation of the boy provided by his 6th sense.

Mediocre.

The boy was as prime an example of this word as he had ever met. Average abilities, average intellect, no hobbies, little ability to relate with others (it had been almost a war just trying to coax as much as this out of him), failed the entrance exams for High School (something Shirou was pretty sure was difficult to do), an average lifestyle, a normal family.

Mediocre, average, plain, normal.

But there was something about him that just made you smile anyway, his eagerness (once he had overcome his shyness), those gentle looks as he talked about what was important to him, he was just generally likeable even if he was unaware of how or what to do with this fact. It was the kind of person Shirou believed would prove to be a loyal and selfless individual to any who made the effort to reach out to the plain, unassuming boy.

And therein by would prove the problem. Shirou had no doubt where they were going was going to be anything even remotely close to *normal*, and he couldn't help but be concerned for this lad's safety, if he even could adjust to whatever situation they were about to find themselves in. He wasn't sure what they would find when this bus stopped, but he knew it wasn't going to be *normal*, and he didn't know if this *average* person would be able to handle it. He knew he could, but Tsukune wasn't him.

_I am the bone of my sword_

No, Tsukune was nothing alike to him; he didn't have the steel in him. Maybe he could one day, but not now, he'd be crushed before that could happen.

Unfortunately his musings ended as the bus conductor called out "hehehe, when we reach the end of this looong tunnel, we'll be right in front of the school, I hope you lads have prepared yourselves…."

That announcement sent visible shivers down Tsukune's spine as he listened to the warning. Nearby, Shirou didn't react the same way, but had to restrain his mind from mentally creating the image of the cocked hammer, the mental trigger to start the connection to his magic circuits. He didn't need to be THAT prepared.

Tsukune had to swallow past the lump in his throat as he asked the scary bus driver "W-what do you mean?"

There was a few seconds of chuckling as up ahead, the end of the tunnel started to pour light towards them as it grew in size.

"What I mean lad, is Youkai Gakuen is a veeery horrifying school!"

* * *

Chapter over!

Again, cleared up author note so all plot points have been removed. This is a new venture for me as I have never done crossovers, nor done a story with no O.C elements. Hopefully I'll be capable of living up to expectations, anyhow feel free to follow and review, constructive criticism is accepted and encouraged, while ego strokes inspire me to write more, so leave them in the reviews as you wish!


	2. Interlude 1

Wow, 700+ readers, thats a surprise 0.0

Forgot to tell you guys, but twas my Birthday yesterday XP, kinda sucked as I had to delay any kind of celebrations for a day due to my twin being away, but she's back at home today, so Birthday celebrations in earnest!

This chapter as you no doubt guessed is an Interlude. These will be cropping up every now and then, covering the flashback events that occured previous to the start of this story, explaining plot points that happened in the final days of the Holy Grail War and the days immediately following victory.

One warning, Saber may be a bit OOC here, i've been a bit liberal with her attitude and delved more into the impact on her psyche with what happened during the war. She isn't a returning charecter and the sections don't have much impact, but I just felt like doing them XP

Anyhow, enjoy the short snippet of the past!

* * *

"…Just what is he?"

The tone of the voice could easily be angry or horrified. The speaker of the words is looking down at the floor of the shed she stands in, looking specifically at two steel rods, one alongside the other. Behind her is another woman, standing quietly as she looks down at the same rods, frowning as she still fails to understand what is so important here, only that she can sense the *wrongness* here.

"I can't believe it…Saber, you knew about this?"

The woman named Saber looks up sharply at the accusation, frowning as she answered

"….No, I did not know. I am a Knight, not a Magus. There was only an odd feeling here, so I do not understand the situation as well as you do."

"…I see. Then I'll tell you. He is not a Magus at all."

In a voice filled with hatred, Tohsaka spits these words out, looking down in almost disgust at the rods once more. However she, unlike the brave Knight of the Sword that stands behind her can tell the inherent wrongness between these two identical rods, identical down to the exact composition that made the two, the same flaws and the same marks.

The only difference is one of them should not exist, CANNOT EXIST.

"…Rin, what does that mean?"

"Just like it sounds. Magecraft is based on equivalent exchange after all. No matter what kind of magecraft it is, it can only bring what's elsewhere here to use it."

"But this is different. He's bringing something that comes from nowhere. He's forming something that should not exist here. That can only be a concept that violates reality. His mage craft is probably a deteriorated version of that one Magic."

As Tohsaka says this, wrapped up in both anger and fear of the objects before her, the Knight hears the tiniest of noises from behind her. Glancing back, she sees her Master leaving quietly, having intruded upon them when the frustration of his magic training must have gotten to him. She feels obliged to go to him, to make sure her Master's emotional state is sound, but there is something she must do here, something which Rin has alerted her too which even she possibly hasn't noticed.

It only lasts for another minute, before without a single word, Rin leaves the shed. Saber doesn't make any move to follow her, and now the diminutive Magus has left, her frown deepens further.

Walking across the room, she kneels down at the summoning circle that had been used just over a week ago to summon her to this Holy Grail War. When Rin first realised the horror of what she saw before her, she had let loose a pulse of Mana across the chamber. Unknowing to the magus, or perhaps not, the Formalcraft circle had reacted slightly in response to the excess Mana in the air and Saber for the first time got a proper look at the runic symbols.

At first, this wouldn't matter, even if Rin noticed, it's an inactive Formalcraft circle which will not activate unless the user has the right and the will to use it, namely the sign of the Holy Grail and the will to call forth their Servant. Since it was already used to summon her, it would never activate again no matter how much Mana was used, it had served its purpose.

Or had it?

She remembered the first time she was summoned by _that man_, the one who used her only to destroy her goal at the end, to render all of her battles futile and destroy the goal she had so been aiming for. The circle before her now was almost identical to that, but it had some additional fancier inscriptions, design upon design to ensure the perfect summoning process.

And that's what struck her as wrong.

_**That man**_ would never do this, it was unnecessary, unneeded in the overall summoning process. Shirou had already explained his lack of any expertise in Magecraft, he didn't even have the basic knowledge to utilise Formalcraft, hence the botched summoning to begin with. As such, there was no way the additional sigils were his work.

That meant one of two things, either _**that man**_ had developed paranoia in his old age and didn't want to risk the circle failing, or there was a different reason for its existence. She would be willing to bet her sword itself that it was the latter.

The only question was, did she want to follow this? Was she willing to once again get trapped by _**that man's**_ machinations, to follow _**his**_ self-terminating whims, choices that led to the denial of her original prize, the opportunity to correct what choices she failed others in?

After easily an hour of just staring at the circle, thinking on this choice, she suddenly stood up ramrod straight, and marched out of the shed. She didn't tell anybody of the strange anomaly she had discovered there, she didn't try to discover the secrets of the circle; she gave up whatever it was _**that man**_ had planned for her.

She would win this war this time around, by her sword and her strength she would carve the path to the Holy Grail and she would obtain her greatest desire this time. She would not let _**that man**_ get in her way again.

And so she carried this secret within, as she threw herself further into the war to complete her personal goals, determined that she would be the shield that would protect her Master and the sword that would fell her Master's foes. Even when she came to realise the truth of the horrible distortion that was her Master, she still soldiered on.

But she failed, in more ways than one. The contract between her and her precious Master was broken, and she very nearly killed the one she swore to protect. Even as she fought with all her will against the control of the Witch, she was again failing to shield her Master, as for her mistakes he was risking his life to *save* her, to think the shame she felt that as the Servant her only hope was in her Master risking his life to save her. She swore to be the shield that would protect him, yet now she was pulling that man to situations which would more likely than not end with his death.

But he somehow pulled through, between the spitfire Magus Rin, her poor naïve, self-destructive Master and the timely betrayal of the witch by the Servant Archer; she was freed once more from the clutches of Caster. But once again she could only watch in bitter anger at her weakness, her folly as Archer betrayed them once more, using the opportunity to try and destroy her true Master. Her only option was to align herself to Rin, to gain the power needed to protect him once more.

No sooner than she gained her power back, that she could finally return to her role of the protector for her charges, to resume her quest for the Grail, she fails once again, as Archer drags her new Master from that crypt, Rin's life held hostage to give Archer the chance to kill Shirou, leaving her alone once again with the knowledge of her failures as both her new and her true Master face greater and greater chances of dying.

Once again the list of her failures grew, and evermore did the potential secret left behind by Kiritsugu grow on her mind…time and again she had failed to uphold her oath to protect her Master…perhaps in _**that man's**_ machinations, there may be a way to victory, if not for her sake, then maybe for the Master's she swore the oath to protect.

After all she had an unlimited amount of chances to obtain the Grail, right? Due to her contract with the Planet, so long as she sought the Grail she had an infinite amount of chances to obtain the Grail. She couldn't take constantly failing to uphold her oath; even if his machinations would ruin her chances once again to obtain the Grail, perhaps she could wait until the next *cycle*. To fulfil her oath and keep those two innocent lives safe, maybe…

No, she was the Knight of the Sword; it was her duty to see this through to its end, her duty to her country to obtain the Grail for her mistakes in her first life, to be the one to correct the mistakes made in this life that put both Shirou and Rin at risk. There was no chance better than now, with the destruction of Assasin, Berserker, Caster and Rider already confirmed, only Lancer and Archer stood in her path, and Lancer had already agreed to assist them with rescuing Rin. She would be the one to save them, through the strength of her sword, she would see this war won and the Grail delivered at last.

That was her decision, at least up until the moment she watched helplessly as those hundreds of Noble Phantasms rained down upon Shirou. If it weren't for Archer, that deluded, self-denying fool, she would have failed once again. But as the blades fell, it was Archer who formed the iron wall which protected Shirou, using his own flesh-turned-iron and bones-turned-steel, his life itself to protect Shirou from the countless blades of the King of Heroes.

So it was that she would truly learn the depths of depravity within the Holy Grail war. With the threat of the great King of Heroes himself, and the finally realised knowledge of the true corruption that was the Holy Grail war, around that small table within the living room of Shirou's home, her current Master on one end of the table desperately plotting a way to victory, and her True Master sitting there, waiting and preparing for what would be the inevitable battle between him and the greatest Heroic Spirit of all time, that she finally spoke.

* * *

Well, thats that!

I have a strange feeling that I'll probably lose a lot of readers with this chapter, but just so you know, this doesn't set the tone for my FF, this is just some exposition on the events during the War. Next chapter will return to Shirou as the focus.

Again, if anyone has issue with the things in this chapter, then don't hesitate to say, I will readily admit I am not very good at the whole Nasuverse rules thing, and if anybody has alternate suggestions to issues raised in this chapter, then feel free to say them! As always, reviews and constructive criticism are both welcomed!


	3. Chapter 2 Encounter with a Vampire

Well well, I honestly hadn't expected this...this was just something I was throwing out because it was lingering in my computer with no reason or purpose, but it got so many follows compared to everything else I have done...I dare say I felt inspired to maybe do a little bit more.

Don't get your hopes up too much though, I still have a lot of RL commitments, but for now I feel reasonably inspired to actually do this. I've had a lot of conversations with the reviewers, going over plot points and filling holes in my own knowledge, and I have a barebones plan of how to do this all now, with some handy fleshed out details courtesy of:

Blinded in a bolt (for a very lengthy friendly argument that finally got me to correct some issues in my initial plot ideas and tweak some of my ongoing future ideas)

Piterio (for additional Intel I could use to create more plot points and for being a good sounding board for ideas)

Thankee much!

Anyhow, chapter up, once again OOC maybe rearing its ugly head, but don't forget this follows MANGA. In the manga Tsukune does not adjust well to the school from the moment he got off the bus, and the initial encounter between Moka and he is done at the bus stop.

Anyhow, on with the chapter!

UPDATE: Due to a serious number of complaints on it, the useage of Japanese has been removed from the story. I still intend to write the phrases out in english as they are meant to represent Shirou's upbringing in sticking with traditional ways (he's very traditional, not good with technology, loves traditional Japanese houses (partition doors, wooden floors, the whole shebang), and is very polite), but bear with it as they don't quite translate correctly into english. Hopefully this will stop every third review being a complaint about the single term I used XP. Anyhow, enjoy!

* * *

"WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!"

Only seconds after getting off of the bus, Tsukune had already had enough and was practically screaming his horror to the world as a whole, startling several crows in a nearby (suspiciously dead looking) tree as he looked at the nightmarish new world he had been thrown in.

Behind him, Shirou normally would have been a bit more accepting and understanding of the boy's rapidly approaching meltdown.

Truly this was a ghastly looking place. To just name a few of the errors in continuity with the world they had just come from, the sky was a nightmarish purple, ominous lightning cracking through the sky even though there was a lack of clouds overhead (something which even Shirou had to stop and wonder over). Nearly every tree they could see from the barren cliff edge they stood at the whole way to the buildings in the distance Shirou presumed made up the academy itself were in varying states of death and decay. Hell, who on earth thought a wonderful idea for a greeting post would be a jack-o-lantern scarecrow looking construct with the greeting written in a suspiciously red looking ink?

However, right now he was tempted to just give Tsukune a quick bash to the back of the head to save them both from the misery of this situation. The main reason being the monstrous strain he was feeling in his mind from his 6th sense going haywire, a strain that was quickly developing into a headache when combined with Tsukune's cries of horror.

He knew that the entire academy was going to be disguised by an immense bounded field; it was another one of the facts written in the letter from the mysterious Headmaster, created mainly to both isolate and protect the students within from discovery by the Human Realm as a whole. What he had underestimated was the sheer _power_ imbibed within the defences of the Academy.

It was both easier going and a more difficult experience to go through than when Rider's strange bounded field was being prepared around his school (1). While the Academy defences didn't have that disgusting, cloying scent that came with the insidious nature of Rider's field, it was every bit, if not MORE powerful!

Just what on earth kind of entity was this mysterious Headmaster if he was capable of erecting a Bounded Field as powerful as a Servant's? (2)

As Shirou struggled to centre his mind from the strain of shutting out this Bounded Field, standing looking out over the seemingly blood red sea with his eyes shut tight and teeth gritted against the thrumming pain that was building in his mind, a set of massively important events happened literally ten metres behind him, with him being absolutely none-the-wiser to the situation.

However, Tsukune was DEFINITELY aware of said events, as it all started with his on-going panic attack. He had seemingly forgotten entirely about the presence of the Magus overlooking the red sea as he set about screaming at practically everything he set his eyes upon. Even the crows seemed to be laughing at him, cawing with what he bet was humour at his situation.

Eventually he managed to get it all out of his system, and was left a shaken man as he looked about at the dreary environment. Once again, he recalled those last few words the bus driver gave them as they were about to exit the tunnel which brought them here.

_What I mean lad, is Youkai Gakuen is a veeery horrifying school!_

"Freaky….seriously freaky…." Tsukune muttered to himself as he looked about desolately at his surroundings. "This makes me want to go home…."

A set of buildings caught his notice as he continued to glance about. Dragging his backpacks with him, he walked closer to the cliff edge to get a better look at the buildings along the cliff side (still failing to remember or even SEE Shirou only a few metres away from him)

Staring across the water (water? Since when was water red?!), he got a closer look at the buildings and quickly came to the same theory that Shirou had already made to their purpose.

"Ah….I guess that's the school?" Tsukune continued to mutter to himself despondently even as he narrowed his eyes, trying to focus better on the buildings in this distance. What he saw REALLY wasn't reassuring him.

"It looks like a haunted mansion from top to bottom!" he cried out in despair, flinching away from the cliff edge as if realising this had been a hammer blow to his body.

"No, nonononono! That's it, I've seen enough, I'm going home!" even as he muttered this to himself, his resolve to attend the school breaking further by the second as he moved to stand back by the signpost which the bus had stopped by, he paused for a second as he heard a strange noise on the wind (seriously, why was the wind howling like that?! It wasn't even blowing that strongly!)

…..if he didn't know any better, that sounded like a bike….

One full on collision with said bike, a hand by some twist of fate touching a soft thigh, a surprise bite on the neck and introductions made between girl and boy (somehow in that exact order….) later, and Tsukune somehow found himself standing facing a beautiful pink haired VAMPIRE (did I forget to mention the bloodsucking monster bit?) when he finally remembered there had been a second person on the bus with him.

It was about this moment that Shirou finally managed to get the presence of the Bounded Field under control in his metaphysical senses. What he didn't expect to find when he turned around moments later was a curious pair of faces as Tsukune and a mysterious pink haired…

WHAT THE HELL IS SHE?!

Blood….Shirou's 6th sense was once again kicking in, now finally cleared of being obstructed by the presence of the Boundary Field, it was finally able to pick up other irregularities in the world around him, and it was focusing HEAVILY on the girl curiously looking straight back at him with an innocent face and her very powerful scent of blood.

'God damn it…' Shirou almost mentally growled to himself as he once more forced his 6th sense down. Again, he had been prepared for this, to face unknown creatures and entities of all types, and he knew his annoying sense was going to kick in for just about each and every one of them he encountered, but he had not expected the very first one he found to be so incredibly powerful.

'Whatever she is, it could be dangerous….' Shirou thought to himself. However, he muscled down this instinct, and instead smiled in greeting as he faced this new monster (he didn't quite yet realise just how correct this term would be for nearly every inhabitant of this school….). He knew those that attended this place did so for the pursuit of knowledge, not for the sake of causing trouble, there was no point in assuming just because this pink haired…..girl screamed of power and spilled blood with her scent that she was in any way hostile.

"Hello, are you a starting 1st year like us too, mr….?" the girl greeted him openly and happily, instantly making Shirou feel guilty for his earlier thoughts on whether she was dangerous or not.

"Greetings, my name is Emiya Shirou, it's nice to meet you." Shirou replied instantly, adding a half bow as he used the traditional first greetings method taught to him by…well, just one that he had always known. (3)

"Ah!" the girl said in surprise at the formal greeting, but she quickly recovered, smiling as she corrected her posture in turn, replying with her own half bow "Same here, my name is Akashiya Moka, it's nice to meet you."

Tsukune just watched dumbly at the two of them, not really understanding the sudden change to formal talking as he watched the byplay between the two, before they both straightened back up with equal smiles on both of their features. With introductions quickly made, the three started towards the main buildings in the distance, Tsukune's reticence towards attending this school all but forgotten in enjoying Moka's presence. Shirou couldn't help but smirk as he saw how Tsukune and Moka seemed to be walking closely to one another, Moka having slightly forgotten about him as she eagerly engaged in conversation with the slightly flustered boy.

Shirou was fine with just accepting the quiet yet comfortable atmosphere going on between the other two; it gave him time to go over his thoughts about his own situation. About his own goals in coming to this academy, to find out the truth in both the secret workshop he found in his home towards the end of the war, and the sudden contact made by the mysterious Headmaster, claiming to have been an acquaintance of Emiya Kiritsugu, his adopted father.

While he was suspicious about the situation, the information given thus far by the Headmaster seemed to be on the level, warnings and advice both, even Rin couldn't fault the logic in the letter, even if she found the claims of friendship to be false and practically ordered him to ignore the invitation to the Academy contained with the letters.

However, no matter how she put it, she couldn't deny the fact that the Headmaster had somehow known, word for word, the final contingency plan to destroy the Greater Grail contained within the notes in the workshop. If his claim that he was not only aware of, but had also given his adopted father the assistance needed to set up the complex bounded field that would eventually cause the destruction of the site the Greater Grail was hidden under was true, then he would have to trust this man. He would have a debt to this man, which apparently he could repay by coming to this Academy.

After all if even some of what was written was true, then it meant that this Headmaster may be the only ally Emiya Shirou has to help him prepare for a world he was not yet ready to face. Maybe before the Holy Grail War, it wouldn't have mattered to Emiya Shirou, hell, even days before the end it would have mattered even less! Emiya Shirou exists for the sole purpose to save others, to be the Hero of Justice; his battle against Archer had firmly shown that he must not sway from this course.

But he had an oath to upkeep now, a debt he could never repay in what he failed to accomplish for that tragic Knight. Perhaps the one most significant being who would ever enter his life, the one person who he above all others would wish to provide salvation for by any sacrifice on his behalf, and he had failed her. For that reason alone he would do this. It would only be three years of his life, three years where he would live with the fact that while he was safe here, he could be saving many more outside of this extra-dimensional academy.

Live in place of the life he failed to save.

By taking these three years, he could prepare himself in the safety of this realm, while also aiding in the plan of the Headmaster, to prepare a newer generation for the integration into human society, the co-existence of these *non-humans* as the Headmaster so put in his letters with the general existence of Humanity itself.

By doing this, he would be further along the line saving all of those who would be the victims of the distrust and hatred spawned of these *non-humans* for humanity as a whole, although how he was meant to do this the Headmaster had been VERY vague on.

_Just attend and have fun, we'll talk about your role when you're settled in first Emiya-kun!_

By all the bygone gods did Shirou hate people who were vague and unclear, but at least this headmaster didn't seem to be anything alike to that damn fake priest Kirei.

"Ano, Shirou-san?"

Summoned back to reality with a snap, Shirou could only blink dumbly at the person now looking at him, before it quickly registered that the person talking was Tsukune, and the expression on his face seemed to be a mix of intrigue and concern as he half-heartedly waved his hand nearby Shirou's face as if to gain his attention. Nearby, Moka seemed to be looking on both curious and perplexed as to what had stopped the three of them, still wheeling her rather dented looking bike beside her.

'Damn, did it again!' Shirou realised with self-annoyance, realising he had slipped back into that stupid reminiscing that had become more and more common since the end of the War. He quickly composed himself in the face of Tsukune's concern, laughing at himself as he asked "What's wrong Tsukune-san?"

"Oh-err, nothing much, you just seemed to be a bit…out of sorts." Tsukune replied sheepishly, prompting Moka to ask out of concern "Is there something wrong Emiya-kun? Is it anaemia?"

'Why is my blood levels the first thing she worries about or thinks maybe wrong?' he couldn't help but wonder as he waved their concerns off, answering quickly "Don't worry about it, I just got a bit distracted thinking about stuff."

Moka visually breathed a loud sigh of relief at that, that strange neck accessory she wore jingling along with her movements. "What a relief! I have lots of problems with anaemia myself and I know quite how bad it can make you feel! Ah-but I'm all good for now so I don't have to worry about blood for now!"

Even as she said this, Shirou couldn't help but see the slight wince Tsukune had at hearing that, a hand for some reason going to the side of his neck as he rubbed it, like the spot was sore for some reason, wait was the girl blushing? He couldn't help but wonder what on earth was going on there, as Moka had continued her explanation about how she was fine, she had glanced at Tsukune before rapidly turning away with a bright blush lighting her face up.

'Something tells me I don't even WANT to know what's up there…'

"A-anyway!" Tsukune interrupted the strange atmosphere Moka's words had brought up quickly, seemingly very uncomfortable for some reason. Shaking his head as if to ward off a bad intention, he quickly straightened back up, pointing towards Shirou as he asked "I was wondering about it earlier but forgot to ask, how come you brought so much stuff with you?"

Shirou's brows raised slightly in surprise as he realised Tsukune was pointing at his bags, to be more precisely the heavy duty backpack, the huge duffel bag he was somehow carrying with only one hand and the Shinai bag he had in the other. Indeed, while Tsukune had two bags as well, both were more modestly sized duffel bags, no doubt containing clothes and a few personal effects which he was lugging with both hands. In fact, Shirou was pretty sure that Tsukune was glancing either meaningfully or enviously at the Shinai.

Rather than try to explain properly (and risk questions he really didn't want to answer with just what was inside the backpack), he just shrugged his shoulders and offered the most disarming answer he could by saying "I just have a lot of stuff I liked and wanted to bring with me."

Tsukune seemed to accept the answer with a chuckle of his own, admitting sheepishly "Yeah, I get what you mean, it took me hours to pick what I would bring here, you're lucky that you have a strong enough body to carry that much stuff, I can write a list as long as my arm of stuff I couldn't bring because I'm not strong enough to carry it!."

With the topic quickly dismissed as soon as it had started, Shirou just laughed in reply, shifting the bags in question as they continued to walk towards the ever looming main building of the Academy.

* * *

It took easily a further fifteen minutes before the trio finally made it to the academy proper, with Moka quickly excusing herself as she had to find a place to put her bike, leaving the two boys to class hunt on their own, hoping they would make it before the introductory class began. While Tsukune fretted nonstop over the quickly approaching time, Shirou was both sighing in resigned grief of having to listen to said panicking boy, and his once again malfunctioning olfactory sense.

Just as he thought, his 6th sense was toying with him, almost as if it was taking a will of its own, acting like a bloodhound and deliberately trying to track every single new scent from the individuals they passed along the busy hallways no matter how much Shirou tried to ignore it.

Even now he was being hit with another scent, an oddly mouldy smell as the two of them passed an incredibly eerie looking older student on their way to find 1-A. (4) The smell reminded Shirou of the time Taiga had somehow dropped a slice of bread behind the hallway cabinet on one of her unruly races to the door as she realised once again just how late she was. It had taken him two weeks to discover said offense and the resulting clean-up experience had not been a nice one.

Oddly enough, he didn't find the *scent* repulsive despite the disgusting connotations of it. Unlike his actual sense of smell, his brain didn't register anything off putting about the scent; it just recognised, compared it to memory and catalogued it, he didn't feel even the slightest bit of disgust as his metaphysical senses were hit by the stench of mould beyond just shuddering at the memory it had brought up. It was why he was able to control himself from reacting negatively when he had been hit with the heavy scent of blood off of Moka when they had first met, while he recognised the stench of blood, it wasn't really off putting to his senses.

In a way, it made Shirou realise that while each one of the individuals he was encountering now were definitely different from normal, his body wasn't necessarily rejecting their presence, their presence wasn't an *anomoly* to the world as he had felt when he encountered the Academy Barrier or the Bounded Field that had encompassed his old school. He was hoping this was a good sign and not a negative one.

"Oh no, we are going to be late, we are going to be so late!" Tsukune panicked obliviously to Shirou's thoughts as he desperately tried to find the room, subconsciously quickening his pace quickly bringing Shirou back from theorising over his 6th sense as he tried to catch up with the panicking boy.

Just as he was about to groan with annoyance again, the impulse was halted as Shirou spotted the room plaque in question for Classroom 1-A, just three classrooms up and on the opposite side of the corridor. He quickly grabbed Tsukune's shoulder, drawing out a surprised yelp as the boys headlong charge was halted, earning an equal parts panicked and confused look from the boy.

Indicating the room in question, he waited for the boy to finally calm down before letting Tsukune take the lead towards the classroom. As they reached the door and Tsukune went inside first, he took a second to brace himself, taking a deep breath in a futile attempt to centre his senses before he went into the room which would obviously be packed full of varied other inhuman entities.

As he walked in, he was glad to see that practically nobody was paying attention to the doorway, most of the other students were happily chatting with each other so he only received the odd bored glance when he entered the room before interest was quickly lost.

Good, he had been worried that his unique appearance may have stood out a bit. After all, his eyes were now a very unusual grey colour, and his mostly red-speckled with white hair was definitely not an average appearance. Even before those changes were wrought on his body, his physical appearance had been different, as his body was quite wide-set for your average Japanese student and he had been growing ever taller since he had hit puberty. He was both more muscled and taller than your average Japanese person, and if Archer was in anyway a physical measuring stick, he still had a ways to go.

However, it had all been needless concern as it seemed the students were as varied in style and physique as he had ever seen, hell he was pretty sure some of those colours shouldn't exist in nature, he thought Moka would be the exception to the rule, but it seemed Tsukune was closer to the exception judging from the riotous amount of colours in the room (which he truly was, as both Shirou and Tsukune were the only humans actually in this class, something Shirou found strange as he hadn't sensed a single other human since they had arrived on the campus) (5)

As he glanced about the class, he found his target as Tsukune had chosen his seat. Quickly he looked for an adjacent seat to the only other human in the class. The reason for this wasn't so much a growing sense of camaraderie with the mousy haired boy, while he would have normally chosen his seat according to that as Tsukune was a friendly guy; there was one other and much more pressing reason.

He wanted a seat with as few negative scents as possible. If he was going to be in this class, he wanted the spot with the least adjacent powerful scents to distract and cause revolt in him, and he ESPECIALLY wanted to keep as far away from the biggest guy in the class, the one covered in piercings. Not because of fear, intimidation or even dislike although the student in question definitely looked thuggish and had a nasty leer on his face as he watched one of the other female students, eyes suspiciously fixed on a particular part of her anatomy…

No, it was because the only thing he could associate the students scent with was rotting garbage, it was definitely the worst inhuman scent he had catalogued so far and he wanted to keep the hell away from it. While his 6th sense and his brain itself didn't find the scent revolting, it was still bad for his mind as all he could think of was memories of garbage and it was triggering phantom smells in his true olfactory senses, bringing him further revulsion.

There were two seats around Tsukune free, one to his left, one behind. Tsukune seemed to notice his stare and smiled, waving him over in an almost hopeful way, obviously hoping for a friendlier and more recognisable presence to join him. Not wanting to disappoint, Shirou slowly headed in the mousy haired boys direction, all the while trying to as discretely as possible sniff at the air to determine those closest to him now.

In the end, Tsukune looked on in surprise as Shirou took the seat not beside him but behind him. The reason was simple; the seat behind Tsukune was the one closest to the back wall, as thus there was nobody behind him. That limited inhuman presences to his left and right, with Tsukune the human in front of him, definitely the best result he could think of.

As an added bonus, it seemed his senses were finding more enjoyable scents from his two new neighbours. While the guy to his right hadn't even noticed him taking the seat, still chatting to his friend in front of him, Shirou didn't mind. His scent was simple, a clean earthy scent, like freshly turned soil, definitely an improvement over the garbage five seats away.

'No wait, gotta change that thought, it's not his fault he smells like garbage, he could be a really nice guy for all I know.'

Ignoring said thoughts, he focused on his other new neighbour. This one was a girl instead, another one of the vibrant hair brigade as she had light purple hair. He was also surprised to see that she had a much adjusted set of clothes compared to the other students.

While he himself had received the school uniform delivered to his house a week ago, he had been forced to stow it away. For some reason, it seemed the school set he had been sent hadn't been sized properly, perhaps it was a standard size for a Japanese student, but again his frame was anything but normal. As such, he had just turned up to the academy wearing his brown uniform from the Fuyuki City High School. It was entirely the wrong colour, but he didn't have any other appropriate sets of school clothing so had to make do. Nobody had complained yet, so he was just going with it until he could get an appropriately sized uniform.

In comparison, the only part of her clothing which seemed to match the other students was the light brown pleated skirt. Excluding that and moving onto non-regulations clothing, she had a white sweatshirt with long dark blue sleeves worn loose on her shoulders with a black singlet underneath. She had also opted for long dark and light purple-striped stockings which Shirou could only guess was meant to match her purple hair. As if to top it off, she had oddly decided to go with a belt tied to her left leg.

As he looked over at this strange neighbour, she seemed to sense his eyes on her, so she turned her head slightly to see him out of the corner of her eyes. He couldn't help but notice her unique eyes, which were a very unique blue, seemingly ringed on the outside with purple with no noticeable pupils.

'Ice'

As she looked at him with those eyes, now widening in surprise as she seemed to take notice of his strange iron greys in turn (while the majority of the class had every colour imaginable in their hair, this girl was the first he had seen except Moka with a unique eye colour, as such he figured he in turn might be the first she had seen with unique eyes), he finally managed to place what that strangely biting scent had been in his metaphysical senses.

He had no idea how he figured it out, why on earth his mind was labelling this scent he couldn't properly recognise as Ice, but when he saw her eyes, it just sprung up in answer in his mind. At first he assumed her scent to be perhaps some kind of sharp mint or maybe wintergreen, but now he was looking into those blue eyes, his mind was firmly tagging and cataloguing the scent as Ice. So, in the position he had chosen in the class, it was Human (mediocre) in front, Earth to the right and Ice to the left.

'Hey wait, is that a lollipop in her mouth?'

As his mind idly added this thought to the growing list of observations he made about his new neighbour, it seemed his mind finally booted back into gear and realised he had been staring for long enough to be considered rude. Fortunately it seemed the girl had lapsed in her original thoughts too as her eyes in turn flitted from his eyes to his hair, then down to his different uniform.

Just as he was about to try introducing himself to the girl to both cover his mistake and hopefully stop her as he was now feeling slightly uncomfortable under the prolonged stare of those blue eyes, a loud bang announced the arrival of their teacher as a very exuberant woman swayed into the room. Once again, Shirou's 6th sense came into play as he turned towards the source of the noise. Unlike the unclear ones he had been sensing, there was absolutely no way he could ever mistake what scent this woman would have. Between the obviously placed flicks in her hair that looked distinctly like animal ears, not forgetting the actual TAIL that was swinging from her hips, it was obvious that this animalistic scent was a-

'Nyan'

'Wait what?'

'Nyan'

Just as Shirou was about to think of the term Cat to describe the scent, he felt his mind suddenly make the leap in logic without focusing on his actual thoughts, and so it mentally labelled the scent as *Nyan*, just as his mind had mentally labelled the scent beside him as Ice, it had been doing so for every scent he had detected so far.

He wasn't labelling them mentally, his mind did so instinctively, and then his thoughts caught up. When he couldn't think of what the scent was, his mind didn't label it, but the moment he instinctively knew it, before he actually made the connection in his head his brain had already catalogued it correctly for him.

Except this time, facing this exuberant woman who was waltzing in with a grin as she made to greet the class, it had failed him.

'Nyan'

Before he could mentally label it Cat, his mind called it Nyan for god-knows-what-reason. Now, every time he tried to focus on the scent, the label Nyan kept popping up mentally…

This 6th sense was going to be the death of him, and boy did he know it…

"Hello everyone, and welcome to Youkai Academy!"

'Weep later, focus now' Shirou thought mentally as he looked forward, noting that the boy in front of him now sat up ramrod straight as he faced the cat-like teacher in front of the class, who had managed to procure a telescopic pointer from somewhere, and was now tapping it against her shoulder almost like a drill sergeant as she faced the class.

Except the wide smile ruined that illusion entirely.

As she started to walk back and forth at the front of the class, the tail concealed now as she wrapped it back around her waist, she continued the introduction. Shirou found himself sitting a little straighter as he tried to focus better on the teacher.

"I think you all already know this, but….this is a school for the sake of MONSTERS to attend!"

*CRACK*

'What the hell was that?!' Shirou wondered as he detected a…noise? No wait that felt like another one of those metaphysical instincts, his 6th sense so to say….but he had never HEARD anything before, it was always a SMELL.

As Shirou wondered what the hell that meant, having taken the teachers announcement with ease as he already knew what he was getting into when he came to Youkai Gakuen, there was one person in the room whose world had just fallen apart. A single sentence changed his understanding of the world as a whole with such a finality that this oh so important core just broke and crumbled into ruins.

In his seat, at his small desk, Tsukune couldn't help but utter a tiny whimper.

* * *

And thats a wrap!

Hope you guys liked the chapter, review if you want to suggest adjustments and changes, discuss plot or just want to tell me the stories good (ego boosts are loved by all authors XP)

Thats all for now folks, seeya next time!

(1) In UBW, Rider's identity was never discovered. While Bloodfort Andromeda was utilised, Souichirou caved in Rider's throat before Shirou, Rin and Saber could even confront her. As such, neither her true name nor ability was discovered by them.

(2) Just to be clear, the Headmaster isn't as powerful as a Servant. He had unlimited amounts of time to setup this Bounded Field and the assistance of a (what will be) Noble Phantasm with absolute control over Barrier Based/Sealing Bounded Fields, the Rosary of Judgement.

(3) If you didn't guess, that indicates his pre-amnesia life. UPDATE: This was the Japanese phrase I was getting called out on, I've modified the direct translation a bit to make easier reading, but it isn't a fully accurate rendition. Technically it's "I'm pleased to meet you, I am (name), I will be in your care." or something along those lines.

(4) No, I have no idea if that was their classroom number, it is now until somebody proves me wrong (which they probably will XP)

(5) Shirou doesn't yet know that humans are not allowed in Youkai Gakuen, he's running under the assumption that they are merely the minority, and the Headmaster didn't bother mentioning the truth XP.


	4. Chapter 3 Homeroom fun!

Hi guys, sorry for long wait for so little story, blame the people who saw fit to buy me both KH 3D and The Last Story for my birthday, by god I need to stop getting hooked to games so easily...

Anyhow, short chapter today, I kinda need advice on this as I feel I didn't quite do it right. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get this to flow right, curse my damn Autism, I just can't get certain things down right...

Anyhow, advice would be appreciated on how this flows, if you feel anything seems jarring or halting, don't hesitate to tell me. I intend to redo certain parts of the story later when I get more experience and know better what people appreciate, so for now if this seems...tacky or blocky, sorry I'll fix it when I can get my head around it.

Finally, a note on my POV writing. The POV of charecters will swap quite a bit in this chapter, in future chapters as the story starts to develop, I will be able to clearly segment them, but while the main charecters are all together, this will be the prime way I handle things. They will start to diverge from after this chapter, but it will re-occur as time goes on. Just figured I should warn ya.

Anyhow, have fun reading!

* * *

"I think you all already know this, but….this is a school for the sake of MONSTERS to attend!"

Having delivered this potentially mind breaking statement that did indeed cause one of her new students mental faculties to crash, the cat teacher smiled happily as she looked over her new students. Having not realised what harm she had innocently inflicted upon Tsukune's mind, she continued her rather enthusiastic introduction, turning her back as she started drawing pictures and notes on the blackboard at a speed that would have shamed Fujimura Taiga.

"My name is Shizune Nekonome, and I will be your homeroom teacher, and for the most of you your literature teacher as well! I hope we get along well!"

Having, by some mysterious arcane art, covered the entire classroom-wide blackboard in little chalk drawings and notes in less than ten seconds, Nekonome happily turned back to the class, chalk replaced in her hand once more by the pointer, which was rapidly tapping at the little drawing titled *Earth*.

"Now, as we all know, with the advancements of current day technology Humanity now populates nearly the entirety of the Earth and with their numbers are now the predominant species on the planet."

"As such…." The teacher continued, moving the pointer from the little ball with stick figures standing on it, and now tapping at the large box with the phrase *COEXISTENCE!* labelled boldly in its centre. "For us monsters to continue to survive, we have no choice but to continue to coexist peacefully with humans! It is for this reason that Youkai Gakuen was established, at this Academy you will be studying *How to coexist with humans!*"

At his desk, Shirou took all of this in easily, having already known this would be the case for the most point, alike the other Monsters who were in the class. Sure, that wasn't why he was here, hell even he wasn't 100% sure what his purpose here was, all he could do was guess what the Headmaster's plan was for him.

For that reason, he had intended to watch his other fellow *students*, so he could identify their reactions to the notion of *coexistence*. However, he didn't get very far as his attention was immediately taken by the person who was by far reacting the most, and not positively to the teacher's introduction.

'Oh boy….'

In comparison to the other human in the class, Tsukune wasn't taking this news so easily. It was a good thing that control over their human forms wasn't expected to be perfect amongst monsters, because if any normal human (such as the one sitting behind him…) had noticed his cold sweat and trembling normally, they may have figured something was seriously wrong with Tsukune. As it was, the fellow students just ignored the obvious distress Tsukune was going through, figuring that he just had bad control over his form.

Tsukune had trouble trying to control his breathing as he was getting close to hyperventilating (again ignored by the majority of the class), trying to calm his already frayed nerves.

'M-M-Monster Academy?! I thought the name was just a joke! Everybody in this room is an M-Monster?!'

Sure, Moka had already told him she was a Vampire, so he already knew one Monster was attending this *Youkai Academy*, but he was human, surely it was normal to think Moka had been the exception to the rule of normality in this place, not that he himself was the exception?!

'W-wait, if this school is for Monsters then…'

Carefully (or what he thought was), Tsukune tried to sneak a look at the boy sitting behind him. Surely Shirou, who had spent nearly two hours telling him about his past, one that sounded so plausible for a normal person, a normal HUMAN, must be human too right? Surely he must be as surprised and as panicked as he was right? RIGHT?!

But no, even as he glanced over his shoulder at the mostly red haired boy, he could see Shirou was not panicking in even the slightest, not even slightly perturbed at what the….teacher had said!

Tsukune turned back to face forwards at whiplash speeds, afraid that the boy behind him might have noticed him looking. After all, if he wasn't surprised, that must have meant he was a Monster too! Tsukune failed to notice that those iron grey eyes had been looking at him with a hint of concern, not any kind of hostility that he was imagining all of those around him now may have.

Up in front of the class, still completely oblivious to the mental breakdown happening right in front of her, Shizune cheerfully continued her explanation.

"So for that reason, as a school rule you will all live your lives at this academy in your human form! Do you all understand?" The teacher paused for a second at that, adopting a more stern expression to impress the importance of her next few words.

"It's a matter of being able to disguise yourself well as a human! This is the foundation of coexistence. You are never to allow any of your fellow students to know your 'true form', UNDERSTAND?"

As there was a collective mutter of acknowledgement from the majority of the class, both Shirou and Tsukune gave a sigh of relief at that. If knowledge of 'true forms' was banned, and the premier rule of the school was that they had to remain in 'human form' at all times, the chances of discovery was far lower for either human, although Shirou could easily just use one of his more esoteric abilities to pass himself off as Non-Human.

"Hey teacher!"

Everybody's attention was dragged straight to easily the biggest and most intimidating of the students in the class, the same blond haired thuggish looking teen who had been leering at the other girls earlier, Shirou's eyes narrowing as he heard the arrogance in that voice, finding irony in how those words were spoken by the one whose scent stunk of Garbage to his metaphysical senses.

With attention on him, the student in question just smirked as he asked "Would it not be better for us to just eat those puny humans, and in the case of beautiful girls, better to molest them?"

Even the other Monsters in the class looked at the thuggish teen with shock and disgust, let alone Shirou who was mentally marking the boy as the first on his *to watch* list. Tsukune in particular also seemed shocked by the disgusting proposal the student had set forth as he felt his earlier fears spring up even more strongly, recalling to mind once more what that scary bus driver had told him.

_What I mean lad is Youkai Gakuen is a veeery horrifying school!_

Oddly enough, the suggestion didn't even faze the teacher, although she did seem a little surprised at something. But she didn't bother answering the student's outburst, instead she continued her words as if to clear up any potential misunderstandings they may have had.

"Incidentally, here at Youkai Gakuen, the teachers and the students are all Monsters; there are absolutely no genuine humans on campus!"

….okay, even Shirou recoiled slightly at hearing that, let alone Tsukune. Before they could think further on the connotations meant, more was added from the teacher who seemed to be getting oddly excited now as she continues

"Since this Academy is within a secret sacred territory, humans aren't allowed within the Academy, if humans did somehow get within the school and learnt of the existence of Monsters, well…we will bring them DEATH, or something like that!"

As the teacher happily concluded thus, both of the genuine humans in the room were deep in thought, Shirou in contemplation, Tsukune…well he was almost at the point of trying to make an excuse to bolt out of the classroom and back to the bus stop.

'What the hell?! So if somebody realises I'm human, I'll be killed! How did I even end up getting admitted to this school if I'm human?!'

He remembered when his father had excitedly shoved the flyer for this academy happily in his face weeks ago. According to the waaaay too suspicious flyer, it seemed the entry level requirements to get into this Academy were based on the results gotten at the previous school with no entrance exam required at all. As such, he could get in based on his average level, and it was just high enough for acceptance to the Academy.

'It was better than being a drop-out they said! Father, why the hell did you find me this horrible school!'

As he glanced about the class once again, it sunk in with ever growing horror that behind each and every face he saw laid a Monster that would happily kill him if they ever learnt what he truly was, hell, that blonde one would kill any human regardless of if they were here or anywhere else! Even Shirou, who had been so friendly, could be the same as them!

'Wait, maybe he isn't…' Tsukune thought as he tried to rationalize the situation he was in, desperately grasping at straws so he wouldn't panic. If Shirou had been telling the truth to him, then he had been living in Fuyuki City for nearly his whole life, right in the midst of human civilization. He had been raised by an adopted father, who would have had to be human! Maybe…maybe he might be different; maybe he might not have any antipathy to a human?

But even so, that wasn't enough, if his true form was revealed to any one of the other students, he would be killed on sight, hell for all he knew, Shirou might already know! He had been stupid enough to tell Shirou enough of his past, not having once considered the friendly fellow teen may have been some kind of Monster entity. If Shirou had figured it out…

'No, I have to get out of here, if I don't escape from this place right away, I might be…'

Behind him, Shirou was hoping Tsukune didn't do anything stupid in panic. He had no idea if the boy had been able to figure out that he himself was a fellow human, but judging from his reaction earlier, Shirou figured Tsukune thought him a Monster as well. Luckily it was considered an important rule to hide both identity and maintain this so called *human form*, so there shouldn't be any complications so long as Tsukune didn't do anything to draw attention to himself…

In his own case, he was pretty surprised to learn there were no other humans on campus, yet was also perplexed as to why Tsukune was here at all. Either it was a freak accident, or just like he was, Tsukune was accepted into the school for a specific reason. Either way, it would be up to him to ensure Tsukune's safety if he remained at the school, so the first thing he needed to do once class was up, was find a way to reassure Tsukune that he was an ally.

Either way, it looked to him like Tsukune was getting ready to bolt.

Fortunately before that happened, a recognisable cry of "Excuse me!" froze both Shirou's and Tsukune's thoughts, as both boys and every other student in the class turned in the direction of the voice as a very recognisable beautiful girl quickly stepped through the classroom door.

With a quick apology of "Sorry I'm late!" Akashiya Moka stood at the front of the class. Instantly near on every boy (and some of the girls) eyes glued straight to the ironically almost angelic girl, long pink hair cascading past her shoulders and down her back, the student uniform accenting her perfect figure with her developing bust, perfect milky white mile long legs and a pretty face that spoke equally of innocence and beauty, she really was a perfect example of an attractive girl that even Shirou had to acknowledge.

'It seems quite a lot of the females at this academy are exceptional…' Shirou mused as his eyes glanced over at the teacher herself who could be considered a good example of this with her taller and much more mature figure, if he could just get the furry tail still wrapped around her waist out of his mind, it was breaking his ability to take the woman seriously since she had been preaching about maintaining human form only moments ago.

Looking around the class to see if his theory was true, he also glanced at his new purple haired neighbour who was also watching Moka with an air of curiosity rather than the attraction that the other students were so clearly pouring out. She also fitted his theory if in a different way to Moka's outright stunning looks. He had a feeling that alike to how Sakura had been that this girl's looks were closer to the ideal of Yamato Nadeshiko, and would probably look amazing in a kimono….

'Whoa, head back in reality!' Shirou quickly checked himself, once again cursing his recently developing libido that had somehow been kick started a few weeks ago. Really, he blamed Taiga and her incessant attempts at matchmaking between him and Sakura having effectively broken down his innocence. Didn't help his neighbour had the same purple hair as her, and from what he could see her body was more matu…

'I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD! I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD!' Having failed at marshalling his thoughts, Shirou opted for just blocking them out entirely with repeated mental chanting until his blood had sufficiently cooled a bit. He had no doubt if Taiga had been here to see the blush he was now trying to hide behind his hand; he knew she would be crowing in victory.

In comparison, the rest of the male audience in the class excluding the two humans practically exploded into action around Moka, as every one of them cheered in celebration of being in the same class with such a beautiful girl, beleaguering the girl as she tried to find an empty seat to take.

"Who is she?! Such flowing hair!"

"Hot, she's too hot!"

"I'm so happy to be in the same class as this girl!"

Tsukune was just stunned in his seat, looking up in surprise at having seen the very same girl he had met at the bus stop, the girl who was currently being idolized by the majority of the class. As she walked close to his seat, he stood up to greet her, but in his stupefied state could only manage to quietly say her name "Mo…Moka…"

That was enough however, as Moka instantly turned in the direction of the voice she had recognised from her earlier encounter, although it took her a second to actually recognise him. However, once she did, she let out a loud cry of happiness as she practically threw herself at him, knocking him back and almost upending the seat he had just vacated as she happily cried out "Tsukune! We're in the same class!"

Tsukune was struck dumb in an instant, his mind blown in the tight embrace of the girl as he could feel every contour of her body pressing tight against his, the feeling of that glorious softness that was now pressing hard against his chest literally blowing every shred of built up fear and panic away in one glorious instant. It was literally a miracle that he had enough conscious thought to steady himself before he would tumble straight to the floor from the hug-tackle given by the excited vampire.

Shirou could only face palm at the dumbly happy look that spread across Tsukune's face, even as the of the class broke into frenzied uproar as the males cried out their disbelief of their new idol going straight for the most plain, unassuming boy in their midst.

"AAAAARGGGHHH!"

"What's with this guy!? What relation does he have with that girl?!"

*sobs of frustration* "Our beautiful girl, our beautiful girl!"

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

Even as Tsukune just realised what situation he had managed to get himself into as he was surrounded on all sides by newly heartbroken and vengeful Monsters, Shirou was wondering just how much longer his fellow human was hoping to live.

'…It's going to be a miracle to keep this guy from getting himself killed, even if he keeps his human identity hidden….'

Neither Shirou, Tsukune or Moka noticed as the blonde student from earlier was leering silently from nearby, licking his lips in a perverted yet intimidating way as he decided that he was going to make this stunningly sexy girl he had lain his eyes on his. There was one girl who had been watching impartially and had noticed his expression, silently watching all the excitement from her lone seat in the corner of the classroom. But she didn't really care, it wasn't her concern what that brutish looking obvious Monstrel wanted, and he wasn't in the slightest bit interesting anyway. (1)

Rolling her mint lollipop in her mouth lightly, she glanced once again at the strange looking guy in brown sat beside her, who was now watching the proceedings as well with some bemusement. She couldn't quite place what had made her look at him earlier, just her habit of watching (stalking) people who seemed different maybe, but he seemed…strange, much more different than anybody she had met before. Unlike with the blond student, she couldn't even begin to guess what this guy actually was.

That plain, unassuming student who the Vampire bimbo (2) was molesting was the same, something seemed…different about him too, his Human Form seemed even more perfect in a strangely unassuming way than her new neighbours was, and up until now he had seemed really…uncomfortable here for some reason, and he had been really perturbed by the Monstrel's suggestion. It was rare to see a Monster who was put out so badly by anti-human notions, so maybe he was just one of those really sheltered types, or maybe one who was really pro-coexistence with humans.

'Either that or he's just a scaredy cat….' She mused silently as the class finally started to calm down. Taking another quick glance at the iron eyed curiosity seated beside her, she turned back to the front where Shizune was desperately trying to regain control of the close to rioting male cohort.

Unlike the unassuming one, she couldn't read this guy so easily; neither his obviously put on expressions nor his form gave anything truly away, not his true emotions or his True Form, both of which she was normally able to read on anybody. Despite his Human Form not being exact as she could easily see the white dotting the red that his guise took, she couldn't figure out what Monster exactly that could mean as despite the hair and eyes, the rest of his physical guise was nigh on perfect.

Just like that Vampire who was sitting next to the plain one, his form was incredible in terms of looks and physique. That strange brown uniform he was wearing covered it well, but from his body frame and the small flashes of his arm under the blazer she saw whenever he moved them showed nigh on perfect lean muscle tone that spoke of physical experience above mere weight training, obviously he had to be incredibly experienced in using his human form to have that kind of body when disguised.

'Interesting…so is he a non-humanoid Monster then?' she wondered as it was obvious he must have spent a very long time getting used to the form he had now, but he had absolutely none of the tell-tale signs that such Monsters inadvertently let slip, even their Bakeneko teacher didn't have her human form down perfect, and she was meant to be teaching them to keep human forms, so did that mean that he was a humanoid who was truly adapting his Human Form?

However, as the din of the class finally settled down and order was restored, she had to give up on her curiosity with the fellow student. Sparing one last glance at the mysterious enigma he presented to her, she decided to shelf this for another time.

As she focused back on the teacher, Shirou was finally able to let out his pent up breath. He had no idea what the Ice girl was so interested in, but it had taken nearly all of his self-control not to react to the consistent levels of staring and glances he had been receiving ever since he had looked at the strangely dressed girl and his nerves were a bit shot. He could take killer intent and threatening glares, he had suffered under the best of them during the war, but the innocent curiosity of another female teenager was somehow putting his endurance to the test.

'Maybe this wasn't the best seat to pick after all…'

* * *

Well, thats that for now, shorter than I had originally intended, I will probably re-upload this chapter later at it's full length, but I just wanted honest opinions on how this scene was handled from you reviewers and any advice you can gave. As you no doubt noticed, I have crap all experience trying to explain the female form, so I may have ballsed it up a little XP, if anybody has a better way to describe Moka without going too far into sexy descriptions (I want to save that for Kurumu), I would be happy to take and adapt them in place if you guys think the one I did was unsatisfactory in anyway.

Finally, Mizore. I changed her attitude from canon as we are seeing her prior to having any romantic interests in anybody yet. I decided to tweak her stalking attitude into a psuedo-hobby of reading people instead, as such she is able to easier read people and guess their True Forms just off of their looks, and she just does this is general to anything that peaks her cursiosity. While it may be pushing it a bit, it was just something I wanted to do to replace the creepy aspect of her stalking with something perhaps a bit more innocent.

Anyhow, seeya next time, if this chapter gets re-uploaded, it will be due to extending it to it's original intended length and any upgrades I may make! Please review for both constructive criticism and well wishing, both are appreciated!

(1) Yeah, I decided that Mizore will be able to tell such things easily, such as guessing a True Form just off how they act. Judging from how she acted in the manga, it's obvious that she *observes* people quite closely, so I just decided to show that her observational skills spread beyond her stalker status.

(2) Again, just guesses, but it isn't too hard since Moka has pure red eyes and wears a Rosary.


	5. Chapter 4 After Class

Hello again, sorry for the long wait, I am once again hit by Writers Block, but am trying my best XP. Again, pretty sure I messed up this chapter, but oh well I guess you guys would know better than me XP

*SPOILERS*

Basically, the way I handled the whole Saizou encounter was maybe a bit hard to see. From what I gather, Shirou is more of a placating and calming guy than a *get in there and crush the enemy* type. He is dealing with students not bad guys, and doesn't know the norms of how Monster Society works, so he's kinda winging it. He also doesn't want to provoke a situation as he doesn't want trouble, and while Saizou is a bastard, he may not be considered *Evil* right now as Shirou doesn't know what Monsters Society normally consider *Evil*. All he wants is to defuse the situations and possibly ensure Saizou doesn't return to cause more later, and is going about it as a Student, not a Magus Killer.

Also, once again I'm not leaping into Romance at first sight where Shirou is concerned. Tsukune might attract love at the speed of light due to the rules of R+V (somehow...), but I want the connections Shirou will make to be more gradual and realistic, even if still odd by our standards.

*SPOILERS END*

Anyhow, on with the show!

EDIT: Whoops, mislabeled the chapter as 5, corrected XP

EDIT 2: Yipes, a piece of Attempt 1 was left in the original! I actually wrote this once already when I thought the school day would continue as normal, only to realise that they actually had the first day off in the manga. As such, rewrote the entire chapter, but I must have left a chunk in by accident about having Maths class next. It's been removed now, fortunatley nobody seemed to notice the mistake all that much XP

* * *

The class continued about as ordinarily as any lesson at any old academy would have gone after control had returned to the teacher, minus the presence of copious amounts of Monsters of course. As the debacle that had managed to call itself *Homeroom class* had ended, Shizune had given out the printed timetables for each student and announced that classes began in earnest tomorrow, the students had the rest of the day off to familiarise themselves with the Academy, earning a collective whoop of joy from the class.

As the students attempted to break the land speed record as they left the classroom, Shirou found himself once more in the school corridors, trying to figure out where the hell Tsukune had vanished to. He had intended to try and corner Tsukune immediately before he would leave the classroom, but had underestimated the speed Moka would practically latch onto the boys arm and proceed to happily drag him out of class before he could get a word in edgeways to his fellow human.

"Well that's going to be problematic" Shirou muttered under his breath as the pair had immediately gotten swallowed up by the press of students getting to classes and was lost from his sight, leaving him trailing the corridors alone. He hadn't considered the chance that a Monster would practically latch onto the boy, while it was in a way reassuring to see the half dazed happy smile on Tsukune's face as he had clearly forgotten his fears for now in the face of his pretty cohort, how was he supposed to bring up the subject of their humanity with a Monster practically latched onto the boys arm?

'That and the fact that he's practically got every male's attention now thanks to getting too close to what may well become the schools idol…seriously, I don't know if he has the worse luck or I do right now'

While Tsukune was off attracting the ire of just about every red blooded…hot blooded…whatever term would work appropriately for Monsters, hormonal teenager in the entire school, surprisingly of both genders by some of the glares, Shirou couldn't help but shake the instinctual feel that he was being…watched…

Twisting sharply for what must have been the tenth time already, he tried to seek out whatever was giving him the phantom goose bumps, but none of the passing students he could see were even caring about his existence beyond making sure they didn't walk straight into him. There was the odd strange look he was getting off a couple of the opposite gender which he could swear was…hungry…and was making his hair stand up on end, but he was certain the source of his discomfort wasn't those few girls giggling to each other as they kept sneaking peeks at him from behind his back.

Unfortunately he didn't have time to deal with it now as he had to find Tsukune before he got out of the building, lest he had no hope of catching the boy today. Never the less, in his mind several blue prints were laid out, numerous simplistic yet battle worthy swords ready to trace the instant he fired the hammer and his circuits flared into activity. While the feeling he got didn't seem to feel hostile (other than the freaky looks those few girls who were eying him up like a particularly tasty morsel gave, those scared him), the Grail War had taught him always to be prepared the moment things seemed off, a lesson learnt in blood shed.

Turning his back to whatever presence he could feel watching him, he intermixed quickly into the students, disappearing from sight as he merged himself amongst the crowd, heading in the direction he saw Tsukune vanish in. As he disappeared from sight, a certain purple haired Monster peeked out from behind the lockers she had been forced to hide behind, letting out a sigh of relief as she was almost certain she had barely managed to avoid being caught that time.

'He's got really, absurdly good instincts' the girl thought in annoyance, she hadn't managed to watch him for more than five seconds at any given time before he had turned fast enough to give any normal person whiplash. That and this corridor really had no adequate cover at all. Really, was the only place she could hide behind this singular bank of lockers? No conveniently open vents? No conveniently placed plant pots? No open windows to go outside and watch from there? Nothing else at all? How was she meant to tail a target in these conditions?!

Taking a small book out of her bag, she flipped to one of the pages within, the one she had managed to copy the Class Register on when Shizune had been distracted with the class. As she now started in the opposite direction from where her last target had vanished in, the Monster scrolled down her list to the addition named *Emiya Shirou*, before adding a note saying _Good Instincts_ below the ones saying _Composed (?) _and _Odd Uniform_.

The other pages covered every student in the homeroom class, with numerous written descriptions on each of her fellow students, personality, quirks, guesses on Monster Forms, guessed interests, the whole shebang. She probably knew more about the other students in her class than anybody else did already, just from watching how they had all acted during that amusing attempt at Homeroom she had a basic list of attributes to each of her fellow students

But the exception on that list was that the one named *Emiya Shirou* seemed to be lacking the most details, even though she had been *observing* him for the longest, he had given barely nothing away in his reactions to the strange events during Homeroom, and she was taking this lack of information as an insult on her skill/hobby of observing/(stalking). Even if it wasn't, in her head this was a personal challenge from the enigmatic Monster who was seated next to her in homeroom (except she had no idea how wrong the moniker Monster was), and she was never one to shy away from a challenge.

'I will figure you out, Emiya Shirou.'

* * *

In comparison to the strange situation that was developing around that poor Magus, Tsukune was easily having the time of his life, one of the few thoughts flitting through his muddled mind as he felt the ever so soft pressure on his arm from the stunning beauty talking animatedly to him as they walked was funnily enough;

'Is this…a dream…? It has to be…this would never happen to me…'

But no, as his eyes flitted down to where he felt the pressure on his arm, sure enough the stunningly beautiful Moka really was attached to him, really was walking with him, she really did have hold of his arm…and that soft feeling on the side facing Moka's amazing body…really was…

'Yep' he thought, his face reddening as his eyes told him what his body recognised from the pressure.

'If I can be like this, I guess the whole Monster thing really isn't that bad after all!'

Tsukune was half walking, half being pulled along by a Vampire, in the middle of an Academy filled top to bottom with Monsters, and he was seriously having the most enjoyable moment in his life up to now.

"Hey, isn't this a really cool hallway?" the excitable yet incredibly sweet voice distracted him from his self-imposed fugue as Moka happily pointed out the expanse between the classes. Honestly, in his own opinion it wasn't much more different than his old school set out from the inside, but in his almost punch drunk state, all he could do was half reply "Yeah, I guess so…"

It seemed Moka was too excited by being near her new friend to notice the half assed answer, as she pulled on his arm again, pointing past the nearby stairwell as she eagerly said "Let's see what's over there!"

The sudden tug on his arm caught him off balance, and finally returned him to a sense of normality. With this sudden drop from his fugue, Tsukune finally noticed all the looks the pair were garnering from their fellow students, more accurately the number of heads that were turning to gawk at the Vampire who was even now dragging him obliviously to a new destination in her overwhelming curiosity of the Academy.

"Hey, hey, did you see that girl?"

"Hey look, that girl, no no no, that girl!"

"Whoa, she's beautiful!"

"I've never seen such a hottie!"

To his shock, there was even the odd girl's head turning to look at Moka with what he could swear was gods be damned hearts in their eyes. He didn't know if this was him just imagining things, or if those Monsters seriously could do something like that with their so called *Human Forms*. Really, he could agree with them, Moka seriously was the most attractive girl he had ever seen hands down too.

"Hey, who the hell is that guy next to her?"

'Wait, what?'

That last one hadn't sounded very appreciative to his ears, and what was that eerie feeling he was getting?

"Maybe he'll just leave on his own."

"If not, that bastard is dead!"

"Let's just kill him now!"

Oh gods, that was blood thirst, and murderous intent!

Before he could even think of flipping out over the sudden change in atmosphere, he realised that the person walking along the corridor now was moving to get in front of them.

The student in question Tsukune quickly noticed with growing fear was the same one from their homeroom class, the really big and scary looking student with piercings and blonde hair, the one who had asked if they should just kill all humans anyway.

As he stopped in front of the pair, Moka blinking in surprise as well at the sudden confrontation having missed entirely the building atmosphere up to this point, the student in question licked his lips hungrily.

"Hmm, such a pretty one…" the intimidating student spoke with a drawl, eying up her body with an obviously perverted intent right in front of Moka's face, although she seemed to miss this connotation and was just confused as to what the other student wanted.

Smirking, the Monster completely ignored Tsukune as he spoke solely to Moka, winking in a way he obviously thought was seductive but somehow came across as intimidating as he said "You are called Akashiya Moka, are you not? I am your classmate, Saizou Komiya, salutations!"

The entire hallway went quiet as everybody stopped in shock at the sudden confrontation; after all just about everybody had heard the rumours about Saizou Komiya through the grapevine.

It was at this scene that Shirou emerged into the hallway behind the massed students, having thought he had seen a flash of pink hair disappearing in this direction (although considering the riotous mix of colours so far, that guaranteed nothing, more likely than not there could have been dozens with pink hair) He very nearly bumped into the first student standing still, having not expected the entire corridor to be blocked by a throng of students, blocking his view of whatever had interested them all so.

'I wonder what's up.' Shirou mused as his eyes quickly scanned the crowd, hoping to find the flash of pink he had been tailing, and if not, to find a way through them all and continue his pursuit of his fellow human. However he quickly realised that the entire crowd was deathly quiet, with what sounded like intimidating murmurs going through the ranks. As his eyes narrowed at what this meant, he started to pick up what was getting almost whispered.

"It's Saizou, that guy is Saizou Komiya!"

"He sounds like one of those really ill-mannered and suspicious rogue Monsters"

"He sounds like quite a ladies man from all the human women he has molested"

Instantly Shirou's own breathing rate froze having heard that. It seemed whatever was happening in front of them involved a seriously nasty individual, bad enough that just about everyone here was intimidated and nobody was stopping whatever was going on. He quickly realised he may have to do something here, but he hoped against hope that it wasn't Tsukune in the centre of this blockade. Surely that pink haired girl wasn't in the centre of this massive ring of students, still clutching onto the other Humans arm? Right?

'Oh who am I kidding? Kami really, really seems to have it out for both of us.'

As such, he quickly started to press forward, muttering apologies to any students he bumped on the way in his attempt to reach whatever conflict was obviously brewing here. He had no idea what etiquette was concerned when it came to Monsters resolving problems, but if there was any chance that Tsukune was involved, he needed to get in there now.

In the centre, Tsukune was almost in a blind panic, fearful of the student in front of him. This was truly one of the Monsters who would happily kill any human they came across and he was standing not a few feet from him. And worse, Saizou's gaze had moved from eying up Moka to him, looking as though he had just found a particularly annoying bug and was considering the best way to squish it.

"By the way, why is a beautiful lady like you associating with a guy like this?"

Without warning, Saizou's arm shot out at Tsukune's lapel, catching the boy off guard as the hand grabbed onto his school uniform roughly, forcing a slightly terrified noise out of Tsukune's throat in surprise. With a particularly nasty sneer, Saizou put his muscles to work, moving to lift the boy upwards and hold him off the ground to intimidate him like he had planned.

But he found his arm wasn't rising. Instead, his ears picked up a gasp of surprise from the peanut gallery.

There was something on his arm instead. Something hard was stopping him from lifting his target up; meaning Tsukune's feet were still planted firmly on the ground, even if Saizou's hand was still grabbing his uniform tightly.

It was a Shinai, still concealed inside its blue carry bag, laying across his arm and proving an unmovable bar that he couldn't lift.

"I don't think there's any need to commit violence here, Saizou-san."

The voice that spoke was calm, almost conversational, surprising both Saizou and Tsukune as their eyes travelled up the implement and arrived to find the red haired individual holding the training weapon, his iron grey eyes watching them calmly, noticeably focused on Saizou and not Tsukune.

Saizou merely snorted, not bothering to let go of Tsukune's uniform as he glared at Shirou, asking mockingly "and who the hell are you meant to be?"

Shirou didn't bother rising to the taunt, he had gone through way worse when dealing with Matou Shinji in terms of glib mockery and feigned insults, Saizou wasn't even in the same league and Shinji had never managed to get under his skin despite numerous attempts in their old school.

At least, that was before he became a Master in the Holy Grail War.

Just returning an infuriatingly calm smile as he dismissed the errant thoughts for now, he introduced himself "Oh sorry, my name is Emiya Shirou, another fellow classmate and friend to both of the people you are inadvertently bothering. Now…" still smiling calmly, he gestured at Tsukune, adding "Would you kindly let him go? I doubt Tsukune would have done anything to annoy or irritate you, so I'm guessing this maybe a misunderstanding of sorts, and thus there is no need for…hostilities to arise"

"Sh-Shirou-san!" Tsukune said in surprise, his fear at the current situation displaced by the surprise of seeing the boy from the bus suddenly standing in his defence, facing down the massive Saizou without even the slightest hint of intimidation. Even if Shirou was armed, that Saizou guy looked big enough to simply break something like a Shinai in his hand.

It seemed Saizou arrived at the same conclusion as Tsukune moments later, having believed that even if Shirou looked physically more powerful than the weed he had been attempting to intimidate, the fact that he needed a weapon to face him meant he must have been weak. Saizou's arm moved fast, releasing Tsukune's top and forcibly shoving the boy back, causing Tsukune to yelp in surprise as he almost fell flat on his backside, fortunately caught before it happened by Moka who cried out "Tsukune!" in surprise.

In the same movement, that hand instead grabbed hold of the Shinai that had been blocking him in a tight grip that made the wood beneath the thin carry bag groan slightly at the pressure. Smirking arrogantly at Shirou as the boy in question cocked one of his angular eyebrows in a questioning gesture, he asked "And what if I wanted, what was it you said, oh yeah *hostilities to arise*"

Shirou simply shrugged nonchalantly, replying "Then I would have to remind you that we are within the building, and no doubt there are easily half a dozen teachers within earshot. If things break out here, I have no doubt we will both be punished for raising a ruckus here. Also, with the crowd we have drawn, if we let slip our true forms here, we will probably both face expulsion."

An obvious bluff as far as Shirou was concerned, but he was gambling that this Saizou's self-preservation instinct would help calm this situation down; as he had no doubt any aggressive movements here would spark pandemonium

'Even if fights are accepted amongst Monsters here, I'd bet there was something against doing them inside school buildings.'

Fortunately for all involved (mainly Tsukune, but also Saizou as well, even if he had no idea how much it would save him) Shirou's bluff actually caused Saizou to pause. He doubted expulsion was even an option for him as far as the school was concerned, he'd been forced into attending this Academy after all, and they wouldn't kick him out into the human world where he could be having all different kinds of…._fun_…with those weak humans after all, they wanted to *rehabilitate* him, make him safe for Human society.

What idiots!

But still, dealing with the pain in the ass punishments he would have to go through for doing this would be really annoying, and he could always just do this another day in his free time when he didn't have an idiotic peanut gallery watching.

Snarling in annoyance, he eventually let go of the Shinai, although he did pause for a moment to look at his hand for some reason, he was certain he put enough force in his grip to reduce the wooden stick to splinters, yet all he got out of the bamboo was a slight groan. Dismissing it off hand, he glared at Shirou again, muttering "You got lucky this time."

Shirou closed his eyes slowly as the growing crowd started to disperse, having realised the show was over now and Saizou wasn't about to start anything now, besides, they had a free day to have fun, why waste it here? With Moka still fussing over trying to help Tsukune up and Tsukune's embarrassment focusing on Moka, only Saizou alone was glaring at Shirou with contempt right now.

Certain of this, his eyes opened once more to look at the student facing him.

Saizou froze suddenly as he now saw those iron grey eyes, suddenly hard as steel and full of a single minded determination and confidence so strong it was almost physically crushing his will in facing the red haired student. There was no threat, nor hint of any emotion beyond just showing pure unbending, unbreakable steel will, and that was what was frightening Saizou, causing a cold sweat to develop on the back of his neck.

He was a Monstrel after all, he was used to fighting to prove his worth against those bastard purebloods who looked down on him, he was used to seeing unrestrained violence in eyes and any and all attempts at intimidation or scorn, hell he was every bit as malicious and violent as those he saw that looked down on him, and on those who were just plain frightened of him, but just seeing such unbending and unbreakable strength in those eyes was something he had never dealt with before, and it was somehow, someway scaring him.

Although he could never have possibly known, this was the look of one who could and would willingly give anything and everything of himself to achieve his goals. For Shirou was an existence who could easily and gladly give his life up if in exchange he could save one person with it. He was an existence that had faced legends, fought on the same battlefields as those who could destroy fortresses, and had by his own swords battled and defeated a God-King itself, all in the name of stopping a corruption that if left unchecked could have consumed the world.

In other words, he was an existence a selfish, violent, low level individual like Saizou would never be capable of comprehending.

And you always instinctively fear what you cannot comprehend.

"I wonder…" Shirou said quietly, smiling in a strangely calm way now at Saizou as he noticed the obvious distress the bigger student was under in facing him.

"…which one of us got lucky?"

And with a blink, the moment was over, the invisible presence that had sent Saizou into a cold sweat vanished as Shirou once more returned to just an average Academy student, his Shinai bag now held by its loose strap over his shoulder as he gave the student his usual friendly smile. "Now, I don't know about you, but I think we can just call it a day here, hn?"

"Uuh…" Saizou made an oddly distorted noise as his body functions tried to return to normal after the fear he had been feeling, his confusion obvious at the way his limbs were shaking just standing face to face with the now ordinary seeming student before him. Trying desperately not to obey his initial instinct and run from this alien existence, Saizou walked away in the opposite direction up the corridor, completely forgetting his initial goal of trying to seduce Moka in favour of just getting the hell away from that red haired monstrosity.

Sparing a second to watch Saizou leave, Shirou sighed with frustration. He really hadn't wanted the need to do that, to do anything to attract attention to himself, but the way Saizou had made his last declaration left him realising that the thug had every intention of finishing this another time. It wasn't in his nature to threaten anybody who wanted to cause him trouble, but Tsukune had no means to defend himself, thus the only option to end hostilities for now was to leave a lasting impression in the other student not to violently approach them again, and if just revealing his _Presence_ (1) was enough to do so, it would suffice.

Besides, he needed a way to vent those negative emotions the memories this encounter had brought up again, and taking it out on Saizou was perfectly acceptable in the name of defending someone else, right?

In another part of the school, a certain girl found herself sighing in frustration much to her own surprise as she unwrapped a new lollipop to replace the one she had finished, some kind of internal (stalker) instinct telling her she just missed out on seeing something very interesting.

"Well, that should suffice for now…" Shirou finally muttered under his breath as he turned back to the pair behind him, Tsukune's face now red with embarrassment from the proximity of Moka as she kept trying to check if he was alright, his personal space being invaded with aplomb by the worried Monster, not that he didn't seem to be enjoying the closeness with the girl, enough that once again he had entirely forgotten the situation he was in.

Hell, even he was starting to feel a little embarrassed (_definitely embarrassed, no way in hell could this emotion possibly be jealousy….._) of seeing the proximity between the stunningly beautiful, yet completely oblivious girl and the way more embarrassed boy who was turning redder than a tomato as he tried to back up from the girl, forcing Shirou to surpress a singger at the sight. Really, Tsukune's face was doing a good impression of the same red the coloured the jewel on that Rosary Moka was wearing…

'What the…'

Was that jewel shaped as an eye?

He had no idea what suddenly prompted him to look at that Rosary, he had noticed she was wearing it earlier sure, but for some reason his attention was just drawn straight to it, the way it seemingly blazed red just now, before now the Rosary hadn't really attracted his attention at all, but now…

He could have sworn that eye like jewel had been staring at him just now…

"Urm, Shirou-san…?"

Tsukune's voice snapped him out of the reverie instantly, his eyes jerking upwards to look at the other human.

"T-Thanks for helping us just now!" Tsukune quickly said, smiling nervously as he looked at Shirou, once again reminding the Magus that his fellow human was probably still thinking of him as a Monster, and was nervous because of it even if he did just protect him.

Hefting his pack and his Shinai holster again, Shirou smiled as he turned to continue up the corridor, saying back "Don't worry about it; we're friends now, right? It's normal to look out for friends, and I would have helped even if we weren't, it's just the kind of guy I am."

Tsukune let loose a sigh of relief upon hearing these words, if he was being honest that meant even if Shirou was a Monster, that perhaps it would be okay anyway like being around Moka was. Now if Shirou doesn't have the tendency to bite necks, howl at the moon or do anything else….obviously monster-like….everything would be okay!

Once again Shirou withheld a chuckle as he practically read the series of thoughts that went through Tsukune's head as his expressions changed. Really, he was reminded of Rin's comment of how he was like an open book at times, and now could see what she actually meant.

With the situation contained, Shirou decided to try and build on the camaraderie his impromptu rescue had instilled within Tsukune, nonchalantly saying "Well, I still don't know much about the academy, so I was wondering would you guys mind if I tagged along?"

"Oh, that's a great idea! We can all explore the academy together then!" Moka replied cheerfully to the suggestion, but Tsukune replied less enthusiastically "Oh…yeah…that'd be good…"

'What the?' Shirou wondered in surprise at the reply, before he noticed the rather guilty glances he was giving Shirou, the boy's eyes flitting between longing at looking at the beauty still holding his arm and Shirou's own face.

"….you know what, changed my mind, these bags are starting to tire me out a bit, I think I'll drop them off at the dorms first…" Shirou suddenly said, rolling his shoulders as if to prove the point of his tiredness, having caught on exactly why Tsukune was so reluctant to have him along.

"Aww…" Moka said in disappointment, not noticing that Tsukune seemingly brightened up at hearing this, before his expression turned guilty again.

As he turned away, Shirou made one last shot at his plan, saying over his shoulder in Tsukune's direction "I'm bunking in 211, where are you staying at?"

"Oh, my rooms 212." Tsukune replied in surprise, both boys eyebrows rising in surprise as they realised their room placements were right beside each other.

'That Headmaster…so he was planning that we'd meet.' Shirou realised as he realised that with them both in the same Homeroom and with their living accommodations right beside one another that this had to be deliberate. He would bet they had identical class rotas too.

"Hah, what a coincidence!" Shirou played it off as, before saying "I was just thinking of how I could celebrate finally getting into this academy, and was curious if you'd like to come along for a housewarming party or something? I would invite Moka as well, but I don't think girls are allowed in the boy's dorms." (2)

Really, that was an incredibly poor excuse, but the best one he could come up with on the spot, he wasn't exactly a tactical genius at this and it was imperative that he properly introduced himself to his fellow human.

Besides, his cooking had never failed in helping him before, even calming the great Taiga from mid-rage. Rin had even reluctantly admitted his *Kitchen-mancy* skills, and often openly commented if he even had half the skill in magecraft that he did have in cooking, he could have been a 1st class Magus by now.

No, this really was a plan; he wasn't just creating an excuse to cook!

Tsukune seemed a little surprised at the invitation, while Moka pouted in annoyance that she wasn't able to come along if Tsukune agreed. "Erm…well okay, what time?"

Smiling in victory, Shirou replied "I think 7:00 should be alright, seeya then!"

As he started to walk away, all concerns about Monsters, Humans, Dangers, even his own plan to deal with Tsukune floated out of his head as everything tuned into just what he was going to be cooking tonight and where he was going to get the ingredients. Not once did he look back as Moka started to once again pull Tsukune towards their next exciting destination.

Not once did he think again about how that blood red, eye-like jewel seemed to be following him with its impossible gaze.

After all, how could that be possible?

* * *

And thats a wrap! Yes, I do know that Inner is meant to be considered dormant right now, but I wanted to put something in there as a way to indicate that her interest might be piqued right now having *seen* what Shirou did to Saizou. I also know that the last section seemed a bit forced, but it was the best I could do *cries*.

I would like to know if people want to see the canon scenes re-written or not, when they involve only Tsukune and happen exactly as they did in the manga? Some people seem to skip over familier content, so I want to know am I just wasting time if I do them or not? Also, somebody made a review about my writing being *narrative* and that being something to avoid. I would like to know if my current writing style is wrong to anybody else, and if so, how to correct it?

Finally, one of my earlier readers (before I removed the Authors Notes which dropped plot bombs) has expressed dislike of a certain plot point I had coming up;

*PLOT SPOILER*

Much later on in the plot in Part 2, Shirou accidentally taking in a persons Youki in the same way as a Prana Ritual due to his particular traits (wont explain which, you'll find out later). This would result in his physical appearence changing slightly (again plot) and his Element changing from Sword to Demonic Sword (Origin remains the same). This would have large effects on his powers and abilities, giving Tracing some tweaks, unlocking an entirely new part of his Traceing which closes towards his HF abilities (without the Servant level power boosts and the eventual death from swords) while also incurring unexpected penalties in other areas of his abilities.

This was a plot point I wanted so I could change the way Shirou sits within the R+V universe, merge him more into the setting of the world while also creating massive amounts of unique area's I can explore and just creating something I could have fun working with. It's a very long way off yet, but it had been part of my plans. However, after hearing rather severe dislike from a reviewer (not naming names, that would be rude XP), I decided to put a poll up on my profile. It will be open for quite a while, so you have time to choose whether or not you want this plot to go ahead.

I can do it with or without this plot point. I reeeaaally want to do it, but its down to the readers opinions. If I don't do it, Shirou is going to have to use his current abilities during Part 2, remaining static while the rest of the story evolves without him (especially Tsukune). While I can do that, Shirou will be a bit outclassed by the later foes, and if he just goes UBW spamming, it will got boring after a while. Going with the new plot twist creates a whole avenue of new abilities for him to develop and eventually learn, and by the end of it become an existence definately apart from Archer. It also gives me reason to redesign UBW's internal looks XP

Anyhow, again, up to you dudes, please vote in the poll!

*PLOT SPOILER ENDS*

Anyhow, there is going to be a new section done below, check it out of your interested as it has to do with any Noble Phantasms Shirou will use in the storyline, as I will be creating a few new ones for his useage in different situations (there is once definately confirmed one, copied from Gilgamesh's GOB, although not named in canon as it was one of the hundreds used during their fight). Also, the thing about the Shinai will be explained in the next chapter, its just a kind of momento for Shirou and definately ISN'T the Tora-Shinai, much as people may have been hoping. Shirou will pull that demonic sword out sometime, but the Shinai he carries is mostly just for keeping in shape and for appearences sake.

Seeya next time!

(1) 存在 Sonzai: Presence/Existence/Being. In this FF, it's the term for the ability to control, magnify and project ones presence upon their environment or specific targets. Unlike simple Killing Intent, this projects the very core of an individual's pure emotional state magnified a hundredfold. Shirou has managed to gain some ability to use this thanks to the harmonisation between him and Archer, so he can project his will upon others through direct eye contact. All Servants class individuals in some way or another have this ability, as well as Phantasmal Beings to a more simplistic and instinctual degree. Nearly all high end Monsters of R+V instinctively have this ability due to their Youki presence automatically affecting average humans, except very few can actually direct and control it like Shirou can with his.

Due to his 6th Sense, Shirou can automatically detect any Monsters Presence and use it to identify them due to his sensitivity towards anything that distorts Gaia's natural presence, which in laymen's terms would mean excessive levels of Youki and Odo.

(2) As far as I'm aware, the dorms were split by gender in Youkai Academy.

* * *

Shirou's Weapons

Hello if you came thus far to this section! Simply put, the data involved here is broken down into a simple format to describe the weapons, their rank, time taken to Trace, alignment and any additional notes that come with them. The first entry isn't a Noble Phantasm, but instead the Shinai you saw in the story, but as comparison I have included Avalon. Mind you, that's Avalon as it is reflected in my story, not a copy and paste thing so it may not be 100% Nasuverse-proof, please message me if you have any issues on it XP

* * *

Name: Saber's Shinai

Noble Phantasm Type: N/A

Noble Phantasm Rank: N/A

Trace Time: Instantaneous

Noble Phantasm Activation: N/A

Alignment: Neutral

Additional Notes

Original Weapon Familiarity: Due to extensive personal experience or experience with using the original weapon, Shirou's ability to comprehend and sympathise with its history and construction means both Trace Time and Cost are reduced significantly. Normally, the Trace Penalty on any Noble Phantasm's Rank with this particular label is eliminated and its presence will last longer in this world before Gaia destroys it, also due to comprehensive knowledge on the weapons structure, said Noble Phantasm can be reinforced more accurately, can be transformed into Arrow Form and can be over-reinforced into a Broken Phantasm. However, since this is a commonplace sword and only has connotations as far as Shirou is concerned, all notes regarding Noble Phantasms can be ignored. He could technically make an arrow out of this weapon, but its rather...pointless. Also, its presence within the world numbers into weeks rather than hours as Gaia barely takes notice of such a tiny discrepency, thus priority in its elimination is very small.

* * *

Name: Avalon (All is a Distant Utopia)

Noble Phantasm Type: Barrier

Noble Phantasm Rank: EX

Trace Time: N/A

Noble Phantasm Activation: N/A

Alignment: Holy

Additional Notes

Regeneration: Due to being implanted within Shirou as a child, Avalon has merged with Shirou's body completely and is capable of absorbing minor amounts of his Prana. As it does so, the sheath creates a slight Regeneration effect on Shirou's body, slightly speeding up restoration of any damage to his body and making him immune to diseases and maladies. Due to being empowered with Saber's Prana before her disappearance, Avalon currentley has a finite charge (1200 Units initially, 1170 after healing from the end of the Grail War), which is consumed to speed up Shirou's regeneration dramatically regardless of his intent and outside of his control. While activated, regeneration is strong enough to visibly heal wounds at an increased rate, enough to close near fatal wounds and restore damaged organs and limbs almost overnight. This charge is finite and currently impossible for Shirou to increase, once the Prana has been used up, Avalon will return to its previous dormant state.

Original Weapon Familiarity: (Nulled)

Untraceable: While Shirou once possessed the ability to trace Avalon, it has been lost with the removing of the connection to Saber. While Avalon still functions within, Shirou's ability to conceptualise Avalon has been lost with the end of the connection with Saber. Even if extracted from the body, Shirou cannot conceptualise it via Structural Analysis, thus Tracing is impossible.


End file.
